White Houses
by Dawn of Hope
Summary: I'm writing this because I promised Sirius a present worth waiting for and that it wouldn't be forgotten. This story. The most important story anyone could ever tell about any of us. The story of our white houses. Please take it to heart. .:More Inside:.


**Summary: **My name is Cecilia Aline Aurora and I am writing this not for my own personal gain, but because I promised Sirius that his next birthday present would be one that was definitely worth waiting for and because I promised him that our story would not be forgotten. This story, the most important story that anyone could ever tell about Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, The Potters, or myself. The story of the time we spent together in our beloved white houses. I pray that you will take it to heart.

**Pairings: **Sirius/OC, Remus/OC, James/Lily; One-sided Severus/Lily; Reference to the possible existence of Sirius/Remus, James/Sirius, and Remus/Lily

**Disclaim: **I own nothing other than Cecilia and the way the plot is put together and written. The song the fic is inspired by (White Houses) belongs to Vanessa Carlton and everyone who helped her write it. The characters, locations, and everything else Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling and her amazing mind.

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><p>Prologue: Something Worth Sharing<p>

**.:7 July 1995:.**

Waking up at eight in the morning wasn't anything new to those who had been staying at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place over the hot summer of 1995. In fact, waking up at eight in the morning was considered generous and was indeed a rare occurrence that should've been treasured, but things that should happen aren't always what happen and despite the two extra hours that Molly Weasley had given to her children, Hermione Granger, and Sirius Black, they came out of their bedrooms ungrateful. By nine o'clock, they were all sitting at the table in the dining room, yawning, rubbing their eyes, and refusing to move.

And despite Hermione's protests, they didn't move until Mrs. Weasley came in ordering them about and threatening a very harsh punishment if they didn't get off their lazy hind ends. Once they were all on their feet, she led them into a large room up the stairs and motioned around, explaining that they were to go through all of the trinkets and have them sorted through before lunch. Nothing to in depth, just that they have all the trash and junk in one box, all the dangerous things in another, and anything worth keeping in the third. Her own children responded with an exasperated sigh and Hermione promised to be sure that everything was finished. With this promise, the doorbell rang and Mrs. Weasley hurried down the hall.

"This…" Fred said, motioning around the room, "…is torture."

"The worse kind of torture!" Ginny agreed loudly.

"You don't even understand how horrible this is for us, sister dearest." George sighed.

"How do you think I feel?" Ron demanded, "I'm exhausted!"

"_You're _exhausted?" Fred and George demanded, "We're so tired we can't stand it!"

"Stop complaining, the lot of you." Hermione scowled before jabbing two fingers at Fred and George, "You two wouldn't be so tired if you hadn't been up all night. As for your statement about this being torture, living in this filth is more tormenting than cleaning it is! The amount of dirt and grime here is positively repulsive."

"It's always been this repulsive and filthy. Imagine how I must've felt, Hermione. I had to grow up in it." Sirius mumbled, walking over to a huge glass case and starting to go through it, tossing things in the boxes that Mrs. Weasley had given them. "Start going through the things over there, alright?" He asked softly, motioning over his shoulder. He paused to look at the objects he was pulling out carefully; making sure nothing was valuable, powerful, or dangerous, before throwing it in the right box.

The Weasleys all chuckled at Sirius's statement, but Hermione didn't seem quite so entertained. Her eyes remained trained on Sirius, noting the odd behavior with her head tilted to the side. Even when they were cleaning, he was rarely as sulky, solemn, and quiet as he was in that moment. It was eerie and almost bone chilling but Hermione quickly brushed it off, turning to face the others. "Alright. Fred and George, take everything over there. Ginny and Ron, take the wardrobe on the other side of the room. I'll do this set of drawers." Once she spoke, everyone got to work, pulling strange objects and shredded pieces of cloth and documents out of the drawers and chests and throwing things into the right box.

By that point in the summer, the work had gotten to a point of being boring and extremely monotonous, but Hermione and the others had convinced themselves that it would be worth it when they could spend the last days of summer lazily lounging about the huge house. Hermione, Ginny, and Ron were so focused on their work that they hardly noticed when Mrs. Weasley returned with Remus at her side or when Sirius left the room a few moments after Mrs. Weasley had left the second time or when Fred and George left the room to hide from work. In fact, they didn't notice that three of their cleaning crew had vanished until two hours after said three had left and at that point there was no sense in looking for them: Fred and George had mastered hiding in the house and Sirius would surely return at some point. With their own jobs completed, the remaining three sat down on the large couch that was in the room and decided to take a break.

"Did either of you find anything interesting?" Ginny broke the silence first, glancing between Ron and Hermione, who both seemed utterly exhausted.

"Not particularly." Ron frowned, leaning forward. "Most of the stuff was just old documents and random, torn up clothes. I found an interesting a strip of velvet with rubies sewn into the bottom." Ron pulled out the mentioned fabric, showing it to the girls.

"Yeah. I really only found documents as well. What exactly they were doing in a wardrobe is beyond me." Ginny groaned. She and Ron both looked at Hermione expectantly.

"I found some interesting documents?" Was what was offered in a tone that seemed to be insisting that even if they didn't find jinxed tea cups, parchment could still have some interesting qualities. A statement like that was expected from Hermione and in response, Ron turned his head away and got comfortable.

"Do you mean interesting as in they actually held interest to someone like me or interesting to someone like you?" Ginny asked, yawning.

"Well, the entire bottom drawer seemed to be full of stuff that had to do with Sirius and Remus and Harry's Parents." Hermione got up and walked over to the chest of drawers, kneeling down at the bottom drawer and pulling it open. She carefully removed about three newspaper clippings, two photographs, and a leather diary, spreading it all out on the ground and motioning at it with a smile. "See?"

"Wow." Ginny moved to her feet, shoving her already sleeping brother to the side and moving to sit down next to Hermione. Her eyes carefully picked through the different newspaper articles that Hermione had spread out. Two of them were about familiar subjects: Sirius's arrest and the death of Harry's parents, the third was about something totally different: a girl named "Cecilia A. Aurora". The only words in the title that she could make out read _Refuses Award for Helping Catch Sirius Black. _

"I'm not sure who this Cecilia is…" Hermione mumbled softly, "But this was the photograph that was attached to that clipping."

Ginny grabbed the photograph that Hermione motioned to and blinked. Staring back at her with her arms crossed over her chest was a sad looking woman with short brown hair and blue eyes. Ginny gave the photography back to Hermione and smiled, "She's pretty?"

"She is. She's also in this." Hermione held up the other of the two photographs. Ginny's eyes picked out the girl, Cecilia, quickly and then she found Remus, Lily, Sirius, and James all around her. Lily was gripping Cecilia's arm, shaking her head at Sirius as if telling him off. Remus was rolling his eyes at the whole ordeal, watching Cecilia with a small smile. James was behind Lily, trying to get her attention. Every now and then, James succeeded and Lily would give him a quick kiss before focusing again on Sirius and Cecilia, both of whom were beaming. "Looks like she knew everyone, huh?"

"Looks like it." Ginny mumbled, taking the photograph and turning it over. There was writing on the back of it in red ink. "_14 November 1981; Happy twenty-second birthday, Sirius. I'm afraid I won't be able to spend it with you and I'm also afraid that you probably won't be getting this, your present, any time soon. No, I know that you won't be getting it any time soon and it's partially my fault. You remember how you asked me to be sure that we don't forget what happened? Well, that's your next present. It'll be a little leather journal, quite similar to the ones I kept back then. I don't know when you'll get it, but I promise to make it something worth waiting for. Until then, Sirius, promise me one thing. Don't forget either, okay? Yours, Cecilia." _

Hermione blinked and then turned to look at the diary, carefully picking it up. "This must be that present she promised, huh? If my dates are right then Sirius would've been in Azkaban before she even sent the first one."

"Maybe that's why it's here. She thought that if he ever got out, maybe he'd come back here and find them?" Ginny offered weakly.

"I wonder if he knows it's here yet." Hermione said quietly.

Ginny was no longer paying full attention; her eyes were trained on the diary. "Should we read it?"

"What do you mean 'should we read it'? That's an invasion of privacy, Ginny!" Hermione said sharply, "Sirius is the only one who should read it and besides, we need to be cleaning! Your mum will kill us if we don't get the work done."

"Come on, Hermione!" Ginny protested. "It's just a diary and mum can't get angry with me if she's busy being angry with Ron, Fred, and George! Let's read it! It could be an interesting story! Aren't you curious about all of this?"

Hermione couldn't deny that she was curious and anything that she learned about Harry's parents she could pass on to Harry. It would certainly make him happy to know more about his mother and father and what they were like during school. "Alright, fine." She mumbled softly, opening the book and flipping through the pages, "We can read it. It seems normal enough, just a simple charm to keep it from running out of pages. No dark magic. If you really want to read it, I won't object."

"Yes!" Ginny nearly jumped to her feet in joy, "Well take turns reading the entries, alright?"

"Fine." Hermione sighed. She turned to the first page and a letter fell out. Over the front of it was written: _7 July 1982; To Whom it May Concern._ "I suppose this'll count as my first entry." Hermione smiled, holding it up before opening it and beginning to read.

_Reader, _

_I have enclosed this letter to explain myself to anyone who may find this journal; rather you're screening my mail, you see this on the street, or you find it sitting in a dusty and abandoned old house. First and foremost, I do not have contact with Sirius Black whatsoever, so there's absolutely no reason for you to worry. He's currently in Azkaban, alone, just like the government has decided he should be. However, I considered him a friend and rather or not he is guilty of a crime will not stop me from celebrating his birthday. If the time comes that he ever gets out of this place, I would ask you to please give this to him. If you cannot…well, I have already accepted that fate will likely place this in the hands of someone who can't. My only hope is that if you can't give this to Sirius, you will read it and learn something from it. _

_I know that there are undoubtedly people out there who are interested in who I am, people who want to know what I was like during school, what house I was in, what my family was like, and it's all a bit of a change for me because up until last October, I was a no body and six years ago I was more of a nobody than anybody else out there. I was average, to say the least. I attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which I had since I got my acceptance letter in 1971, and was in the most unassuming house there is: Hufflepuff. I was average in most of my classes, with my best classes being Divination, Herbology, and Care of Magical Creatures. I came from a...reasonably normal family, but you'll learn more about that later. I had a decent amount of friends, one of them being Lily Evans, a fact that I believe is important to know for later. I knew many people's names and I knew their faces, but no one really knew mine. Now, all of a sudden, everyone knows who I am and wants to know more, but that isn't why I'm writing this. _

_My name is Cecilia Aline Aurora and today, 7 July 1982, is my twenty-second birthday. This journal tells of events that began exactly six years ago, to the day, and ended in November of last year. I am writing this journal because I made a promise to one of my closest friends, a promise that I wouldn't forget. I made a promise to Sirius Black that our story would never be forgotten and that he would have a birthday present worth waiting for. A birthday present that tells, not about my life, but about all the lives that got mixed up in this story. This story, the most important story anyone could ever tell about Sirius Black or the Potters or Remus Lupin or myself. _

_The story of our white houses. _

_I pray that someone will take it to heart. _

_Sincerely, _

_Cecilia Aline Aurora_

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><p><strong>AN: **Alright so that's the prologue, which is the only part that takes place in the present Potter verse. Almost all the other parts of the fic take place during the Marauders Era because I love writing about them Marauders. The fic is inspired (key word) by the song White Houses by Vanessa Carlton, but doesn't completely follow the plots of the song, not completely at least. It's a sister fic to something that'll eventually (maybe) be written by my friend Pharies and her fic'll take place in the present Era, ext ext ext. I really hope you all enjoyed this and I hope that you feel inspired to leave me some feedback so I can know what you guys think.

Also! Since I'm in Pottermore, all information about Hufflepuff and such is being drawn directly from the information on the site (yes, I'm also a Hufflepuff). I know it might not seem super convenient to have the fifth main character in a different house, but I thought it'd be an interesting spin and some of the characteristics of the house explain the reasons why Cecilia has acted as she has, ext, ext. You'll find out more soon! Thanks!

Love,  
>Dawny<em><br>_


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